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IAFFCJ 81 Scrambler

IAFFCJ

Scrambler Junkie
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Manassas
State
VA
Thanks @bigwalton so I tried to go with a straight 2 ujoint driveshaft for ease of replacement on the trail and strength. Built a front and rear with good heavy thick tube. Talked to a bunch of folks who are building extreme style rigs and set up the angles as they suggest. Well i have come to the conclusion that I am just too short on wheelbase for the height I am sitting right now to run a shaft without doing a double cardigan. So I put the double cardigan shaft back in for now. When the time comes to possibly get longer and lower we will revisit the other shaft.
Right now I am officially sick of working on it and want to get out on the trail. If all goes well we should be wheeling by next Thursday.
 

mysunnshine

Legacy Registered User
City
Phoenix
State
AZ
You have an Atlas and can't get a single shaft to work? I guess I don't understand because I have an Atlas and a single u-joint shaft up front with no issues. Are you binding up the yokes when the suspension is cycled?
 

IAFFCJ

Scrambler Junkie
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Manassas
State
VA
You have an Atlas and can't get a single shaft to work? I guess I don't understand because I have an Atlas and a single u-joint shaft up front with no issues. Are you binding up the yokes when the suspension is cycled?

The single u-joint shaft up front is working on the atlas as far as u joints and such go. I did build my own with a kit so it is long travel so I wouldn't have the issue about pulling it apart again. So the issue isn't with the front shaft other than I did not get it as straight as I thought i did and i am getting some vibration from it if I try to run in 4 hi.

So the issue I was having will take a little back story to make sense. I was originally running a double cardigan shaft for the rear of the scrambler that I had made by a shop local. Shaft works great and other than I would like it to have thicker walled tube. The issue I had was I was short on time when I got it made and the shop thaught they knew what I needed better than I did. The flange they put on the shaft was not compatable with the flange in my atlas so I re drilled my flange to make it all work so I wanted to change this when I got a chance. At nationals I tore up a front driveshaft and didn't have a spare so I decided if I was going to build a front shaft i should build a rear as well.

I also tore up my 14 bolt at nationals and put everything into a new housing. While I was doing this I wanted to set up the rear so I could use a standard 2 joint driveshaft. I figured this would let me build 3 shafts, a front, a rear and a long travel that should work for both as a spare. So I set up my pinion angle at 3 degrees to match my output of the transfer case. New spring pads and u bolts everything set for standard 2 u joint shaft. Built rear shaft and both ends bound up so I tried to clearance yokes. NOPE too much angle. So I called the shop I got the parts from to see if there was another solution. They suggested that I point the pinion at the output as you would for a double cardigan shaft and still run just 2 u joints. The shop along with a bunch of folks I have wheeled with are running in this set up and seem to be fine for an off road only rig.

Well it did not work for me at all, I think the angle is just too much at the transfer case as just a slight increace in RPM the driveshaft would rattle like a bearing coming apart. Best I can figure is that my angles are too steep being I am still stock wheelbase to utilise this trail set up.

So currently I am running my double cardigan shaft in the rear and one I built to be long travel in the front. I can go down the road at 60 (about all she has on the little tires) in 2 wheel drive just fine and am good in 4 wheel to about 30 or so. I think I am going to give it a run next week at the Annual Trail ride her in Virginia and see how it all does. I might cut the front back apart and try one more time to get it straight after the event. As for being able to run a 2 u joint shaft in the rear I don't think I will ba able to unless I take some height out and stretch the rear to make the driveshaft longer and the angles less steep.

Hope that makes more sense as it has been quite a bit of ups and downs the last couple weeks trying to get ready for the upcoming ride. While I would like to say it is good to go now its not and I will be trying to figure out what the next iteration of the scramblers growth will be. I am pretty frustrated trying to get it all to work the way I want right now and have been pretty close to cutting everything off the frame and starting from scratch.
 

bigwalton

Alaskan Postal nutjob
FORUM MANAGER
SOA Member
City
Dexter
State
MI
Suck man. Sorry to hear all of that after the work you put in.
 

IAFFCJ

Scrambler Junkie
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Manassas
State
VA
Got the Scrambler all back together and made it to the Virginia 4 wheel drive association annual trail ride last weekend. Other than the rain making a ton of mud and thus everything very slick had a great time and all the changes worked great. I do get some front drive shaft vibration when over 30mph but nothing when wheeling and it stayed together even with meeting some rocks. I would have to say I very pleased with its performance this trip. Still some things to work on but it’s awesome to be able to get out and wheel it.

Off to hot springs next week for more data collection.

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93_Fummins

CJ-8 Member
City
Edmond
State
OK
Such an awesome rig!

I totally missed it, but what series u-joints are you running? I ran a pretty stinking short shaft on the rear of my YJ with the 14B pinion pointed at the case with a ground yoke and didn't have any trouble with it below about 30 MPH....but it was 1410. I was about the same height as yours, but 39.5 Iroks and just a touch over 100" WB. The 203/205 doubler is frustratingly long, especially behind the long tail of a Ford T-18. Also upsetting how much more aggressive the 42" Irok is than the 39.5".

Happy wheeling!
 

IAFFCJ

Scrambler Junkie
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Manassas
State
VA
Such an awesome rig!

I totally missed it, but what series u-joints are you running? I ran a pretty stinking short shaft on the rear of my YJ with the 14B pinion pointed at the case with a ground yoke and didn't have any trouble with it below about 30 MPH....but it was 1410. I was about the same height as yours, but 39.5 Iroks and just a touch over 100" WB. The 203/205 doubler is frustratingly long, especially behind the long tail of a Ford T-18. Also upsetting how much more aggressive the 42" Irok is than the 39.5".

Happy wheeling!
I’m running 1350s. And thanks
 

IAFFCJ

Scrambler Junkie
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Manassas
State
VA
Made it to hot springs for the fall gathering. Scrambler worked pretty well. I tried some things I never would have thought I would be on. Just dropped the jeep off to get its cage installed so the next time we go out I’ll at least be a little better protected now just to up my driving skill level. Big learning curve jumping from 33s on a cj7 to the scrambler on 42s. E8476FE5-963D-4154-B720-8E40C3EE3E00.jpeg47C1EB59-2959-45FB-9C67-EB51A5C83ACC.pngDC575868-2208-42A4-9706-EBAAAAEFEA61.jpeg63A33E03-C9BE-40CD-AB66-04A6133DBA29.jpeg
 

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IAFFCJ

Scrambler Junkie
Lifetime Member
SOA Member
City
Manassas
State
VA
After an awesome trip out to hot springs and starting to figure out what moving up to a big rig means it became very clear that it was time for a cage. I had an idea in my head and was having a hard time getting it drawn out and figureing out how I was going to pull it off I decided to go see if my friends at Chaos Fab Shop could help. I’ve been friends with AK there for quite while and he had wanted to build this cage for years. After tons of time trying to get what I was see it in my head to translate for someone else we went ahead and decided to do it. I have to say I’m totally stoked about how it came out.
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